Shaykh Tusi

Lore & Background

He started writing some of his earlier works in his twenties. By age forty-two, he had learned from al-Sharif al-Murtada, attended Sunni scholarly circles, and studied the Shafi'i school of fiqh. Shaykh Tusi's library was burned or looted, along with many of his books. He relocated to Najaf, where a small number of Shiites were based, and started a school.

Reader's Guide

Shaykh Tusi played a crucial role in the formation and revival of Shia jurisprudence and law, especially after the burning of books and libraries. He is said to have revived hadith and Islamic jurisprudence, and he defended the application of jurisprudence to religious laws. His dominance in Islamic jurisprudence was unrivaled for a long time, and nearly all Islamic jurisprudence was affected by his opinions. He defended the Usuli school against the Akhbari literalists, emphasizing principles of jurisprudence as fundamental to acquiring judgment in Islam. He also used rational arguments to validate consensus (ijma) derived from the principle of lutf. His works include biographies, traditions, and compendia of knowledge, and he started developments that allowed Shia clerics to assume roles previously permitted only to imams, such as collecting religious taxes and organizing Friday prayers.

Did You Know?

• He studied under al-Shaykh Al-Mufid in Baghdad and later learned from al-Sharif al-Murtada.
• He employed rational arguments to validate consensus (ijma) from the principle of lutf, a key contribution to Usuli methodology.
• His works laid foundational principles that later scholars like Muhaqqiq al-Hilli and Allamah al-Hilli built upon to articulate roles for clerics in collecting religious taxes and organizing Friday prayers.
• His dominance in Islamic jurisprudence was unrivaled for a long time, with nearly all Islamic jurisprudence affected by his opinions.

Roots in the Hejaz and the Question of the Name

Sufism is widely understood to have taken shape in the Hejaz region of present-day Saudi Arabia during the earliest period of Islamic history, even before the sectarian divisions that later fractured the Muslim community. Its practitioners trace their spiritual lineage back to the companions of Muhammad, who pledged allegiance to the Prophet and thereby committed themselves to God's service. The very word "Sufi" has generated centuries of debate. The most widely accepted explanation, endorsed by scholars such as Al-Qushayri and Ibn Khaldun on both linguistic and documentary grounds, links it to the Arabic word for wool, evoking the rough garments worn by ascetics to signal detachment from material comfort. Other theories connect the term to the Greek sophos (wisdom), to the Arabic root ṣafā meaning purity, or to the group known as Ahl al-Ṣuffa, the impoverished companions who gathered at the Prophet's Mosque for remembrance. One medieval Sufi, Al-Hasan ibn Salih al-Rudhabari, elegantly fused two of these readings, describing the Sufi as one who wears wool atop purity.

The Inner Architecture of the Sufi Path

At the heart of Sufi practice lies a structured journey of self-transformation. The seeker undertakes tazkiyah, a process of purifying the soul, with the ultimate aspiration of reaching ihsan, a station of spiritual excellence. The deeper purpose is to return to fitra, the original state of purity and natural disposition with which every human being is created, thereby earning the pleasure of God. Sufis organize themselves into tariqas, congregations built around a grand wali, a saint whose spiritual authority is validated through an unbroken chain of successive teachers stretching back to Muhammad. A new initiate formalizes this connection through a pledge of allegiance to a legitimate Sufi shaykh, which the tradition holds to be equivalent to pledging allegiance to the Prophet himself. Central to daily devotion is dhikr, the rhythmic remembrance of God. Classical Sufi texts framed these practices not as departures from orthodoxy but as ethical and spiritual goals drawn directly from the Quran and the sunnah, serving as practical teaching tools for the aspirant.

Sufism and the Broader Islamic Landscape

Although Sufis frequently pushed back against what they saw as a rigid, purely legalistic approach to religion, they were never outside the fold of Islamic law. Sufi practitioners belonged to the established schools of jurisprudence and theology and strictly observed the Sharia. For the vast majority of their history, both in the pre-modern and modern periods, Sufis have remained firmly within Sunni Islam. However, during the late Middle Ages, certain strands of Sufi thought migrated into Shia intellectual territory, a shift that became particularly pronounced after the Safavid dynasty converted Iran under the banner of irfan, a concept of divine knowledge. Beyond theology, Sufis played a crucial role in the geographic and cultural spread of Islam, carrying the faith through missionary work and educational institutions across diverse regions. Their influence was not merely spiritual but also social and political, shaping communities and transmitting Islamic values far beyond the Arabian Peninsula.

Sufism in the Modern World and the West

In the modern era, Sufi orders have faced a marked decline, compounded by sustained attacks and accusations from fundamentalist movements, particularly Salafi-Wahhabist groups, who regard Sufis as having strayed from the true path of Islam. Despite this hostility, Sufism has continued to occupy a vital place in the broader Islamic world. Its reach has also extended well beyond Muslim-majority societies, influencing various forms of spirituality in the West and attracting substantial academic attention. The term itself entered European languages in the eighteenth century through Orientalist scholars, who tended to view Sufism as an intellectual doctrine and literary tradition standing in contrast to what they perceived as the austere monotheism of mainstream Islam, often mischaracterizing it as a universal mysticism opposed to legalistic orthodoxy. The historian Nile Green has challenged these old dichotomies, arguing that during the medieval period Sufism and Islam were essentially one and the same. Today, scholars use the term to encompass a broad spectrum of social, cultural, political, and religious phenomena connected to Sufi communities.